Vernon teachers association calls for investigation of schools chief

VERNON -- The Vernon Township Education Association is calling for Superintendent Art DiBenedetto to be placed on leave and for an inquiry to be opened into the misconduct allegations detailed against him in a letter sent three months ago to the Board of Education on behalf of the district's administrators and principals.

The formal request, which was made publicly by VTEA President Elizabeth Cleary at Thursday's board meeting, came amid a showing of support for DiBenedetto by some residents following the release of that letter, which was dated March 22 but did not become public knowledge until earlier this month.

The VTEA also is calling for a delay of the still-controversial grade-level realignment plan that the board approved in February.

"We ... request the suspension of the district's reconfiguration plan pending the outcome of the requested investigation," Cleary said, adding that the teachers "would support a September 2018 target date for the reconfiguration of the Vernon Township School District."

During Thursday's meeting, statements of praise were offered for DiBenedetto and for the district's administrative team by some residents including the mother of an autistic boy who said her son had improved markedly since the March 2015 appointment of DiBenedetto. Today, the woman said, her son enjoys going to school and has a "wonderful" relationship with his teacher, Shannon Irish.

"When 'Mr. D' took over, I made him aware of my concerns and he told me not to worry," the woman said. "Since then, he (DiBenedetto) has kept his promises. ... With 'Mr. D' and his staff, the school system, I believe, has come back to where it should be -- a system that gets the concept of kids with and without special needs."

Afterward, however, board member Lauren Magee -- responding to the VTEA letter and to Cleary's public statement -- suggested an independent investigation might be "worth considering" to resolve the allegations against DiBenedetto.

Magee, the newest member of the board, suggested many people remain "very vested in what's been going on" and in "the history of old relationships that's predated everything happening in the district right now."

Under the circumstances, said Magee, "the idea of an independent investigation, or at least the idea that someone could look at what's going on in the district objectively, is very appealing to me."

Lunch, cosmetology, preschool programs

The board also heard a report Thursday from member Theresa Coughlin on efforts to improve the variety and nutritional quality of the school lunch program.

During her report, Coughlin said additional efforts are underway to have food made available for purchase by students partaking in after-school sports and extracurricular activities, which can often run well into the evening.

Earlier this year, Coughlin agreed to chair a special committee on the school lunch program that also included board members Magee and Lori LePera and School Business Administrator Steve Kepnes. The committee also included parent Monae Burke as well as two representatives of Sodexo Food Service, which is contracted to run the district's lunch program.

Also Thursday, it was announced that the cosmetology program launched last year in partnership with Sussex County Community College will continue being offered to high school students next year, as it is currently, for two class periods per day.

The cosmetology program teacher, who is employed by the college, is currently on leave and had been named in a tentative agenda item prior to Thursday's meeting calling for the district to rescind her employment. It was unclear why the item was put there or why it was removed from the final agenda, but DiBenedetto indicated that the cosmetology program -- which a substitute teacher recently took over to finish out the school year -- will remain intact.

In other business, school officials have said a proposal to allocate space for middle and high school students with anxiety or depression issues at the Walnut Ridge School is only in the talking stages and will not be implemented in September.

DiBenedetto indicated that even if the proposal were adopted, the affected students would not have contact with preschoolers, who would be housed in a completely separate portion of Walnut Ridge that would effectively be sealed off from the rest of the building.

Zweier, in a subsequent phone conversation, said the proposal, if adopted, will not happen anytime during the coming school year.

A member of the public, Steve Dunlop, questioned Thursday how information about the proposal, which came up in a planning meeting but had not previously been discussed publicly by the board, made its way on to social media after allegedly being told to a parent by a teacher and confirmed to that parent by a board member.

Dunlop suggested it was inappropriate for those individuals to have spoken of the matter but acknowledged being personally briefed on it himself after visiting the board office and inquiring about it.

Board member won't seek re-election

In a separate announcement, board member Edward DeYoung – who has served on the board for a combined total of more than 20 years -- announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election in November and that Tuesday's graduation ceremony will be the last he will attend as a board member.

"I've been on an awful long time, I've enjoyed being a board member, and I hope I've contributed to the success of the district and to students' lives," said DeYoung.

But, he said, "It might be time for me to do something else and to rest a little bit more."

Eric Obernauer can also be contacted on Twitter: @EricObernNJH or by phone at 973-383-1213.

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